


One Call Away

by sugas



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 12:51:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5291567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugas/pseuds/sugas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a rainy Christmas evening a strangers makes Harry an offer. The chance to change his life by making one phone call. Harry doesn’t feel like he has anything to lose and takes the offer, only to find out he really did change his life. In a way he hadn’t expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Call Away

**Author's Note:**

> Please note English isn't my first language before you start reading. But you probably came here for Drarry, not literature.

Rain was dripping onto the collar of Harry’s coat. He didn’t care if his clothes got wet, he didn’t care that his body was completely numb from the coldness. 

Only a few more minutes of walking until he reached his house, he could already see it standing on top of the hill, dark and empty. He didn’t want to go home, there was nothing for him there. But where was?

Lost in a spiral of thoughts Harry walked over the slippery road. The lady from next door passed him, she didn't even acknowledge him at all when she passed by. Her husband walked behind her, trying to keep her out of the rain with his umbrella while she carried the christmas gifts. They happily chatted, the rain soaking both of them as well. 

Harry continued walking, only a few more houses. He looked to his right, he had grown a habit of looking into the dark alley as he walked past almost daily. He expected it to be empty, but there stood a figure. Harry stopped walking, reaching for his wand. The person came closer. It appeared to be an old man, wrapped in a cloak that almost reached to the ground. His footsteps echoed over the street, his cloak seemed to glow a soft orange light in the dark. Harry gripped his wand, tightly.

“Put that away would you, I don’t have that much time,” the man laughed like he had just told a hilarious joke. 

“Who are you?” Harry asked, his voice cracking. He hadn’t talked in three days.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. It matters what I’ve got for you!” The man said happily. He smiled warmly at Harry, a soft orange glow lighting up his face. 

Taking one step back Harry asked, “and what is it you’ve got for me?”

“A second chance.” The man started rummaging in his pockets. “It’s here somewhere, give me a little moment.... AH!” In his hand he was holding a bright red telephone with a turntable. “Just one question before I tell you my offer.”

“What it is?” Harry asked.

“Are you happy?” every trace of a smile had disappeared from the man’s face. 

The question took Harry by surprise. Was he happy? No, he wasn’t. But why would he tell the man this? “I-eh,” Harry stuttered. 

“I thought so,” the man rubbed his chin. “What I’ve got here is the T.I.M.E. phone. He held the phone in front of Harry. I’m giving you one call, see it as a christmas present.”

“I don’t have to call anyone, I’m sorry.” Harry was about to talk away when the man stopped him.

“Are you sure about that?” Harry thought for a second and nodded, he was sure about that.

“Not even yourself?” the man raised one eyebrow questioningly. 

“I’m sorry, what do you mean?”

“I mean that you, with the T.I.M.E. phone, you can call in time not in distance. You’d think the name clarifies that, but apparently not,” the man sighted. 

“So I can call my future self?” Harry didn’t trust the man and gripped his wand tighter, his knuckles turning white.

“Why in Merlin’s name would you call you future self? Call your past self! Change your life!” 

Harry didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t be sure to trust this man, but with the offer the man was making he wasn’t willing to walk away. He had to hear him out. 

“I understand you don’t completely trust me, mister Potter,” the man stated. "I also understand why. But I can only make you this offer once. Please take it, be happy. Because of you my wife survived the war. To see you living like this, knowing I could help you. The least I can do is make the offer."

"I- How can I know this is not a trap?" Harry wanted it to be real so badly. He would call up his post-war self and tell him to go for his eight year. He had declined the offer McGonagall had made him and went to Auror training without Ron, only to drop out tree years later. He had only seen Ron and Hermione at Christmas that year and already then things had been different. Harry hadn't heard anything from Seamus or Dean in over two years. Neville was at Hogwarts, teaching. Luna was probably studying the rare pinkpurple dinglypuff and Ginny... most likely happy. 

Harry sighted, "it's not like I've got anything to lose, right?" He laughed miserably. The man shrugged and handed the phone to Harry. Harry gripped it tightly, he didn't want to let the wet phone slip. 

"You've got to dial the date you want to call yourself on, understand?" 

"I think so," Harry nodded.

He had to dial a few days before his return to Hogwarts. Harry counted on his fingers. That had to be 1998. School started in September so ... August 26th ... maybe. 

"Put it like day month year," the man pointed out, waving his finger over the turntable. 

26-8-1998 

Harry put the phone handle next this his ear and waited, nerves dancing around in his stomach. 'Beep, beep, beep,' Harry was waiting for someone to pick up. If only this would work and he wouldn't be kidnapped by ex-deatheathers. The chance was bigger the phone was a Portkey that could start working any moment. Yet, instead of sucking Harry into the murderous hands of deatheathers someone picked up the phone on the other side of the line. 

“HARRY? HARRY! PHELETONE! YES HELLO?”

Ron had picked up the phone and was now shouting at 18-year-old Harry. 25-year-old Harry couldn’t suppress a smile. The man smiled too. 

“Ron, stop shouting, it’s already on!” Young Harry grabbed the phone out of young Ron’s hands. “Hello? Who is this?” Harry asked Harry.

Harry hadn’t thought about what he was going to say

“This is eh… Mr… Christmas,” looking around that was the first thing that came to Harry’s mind. Harry thought about what to say next a moment. What was the best way to convince himself of going to Hogwarts. He decided honestly would be best. But maybe not try to freak himself out. 

“Look, I've only got one way I can say this. You've got to go to Hogwarts next year. Do you hear me?”

Harry on the other side of the line hadn't said a single word yet. 

“Yes,” he eventually spoke. He sounded tired, drained.

“It'll make you happy. I know this sounds weird but if you don't go you'll…” Harry could barely say it. “You'll end up all alone.” 

“Hermione’ll probably tell you not to trust me but please. You have to do this.” 

Harry on the other side of the line didn't respond. Present Harry knew he would get no response out of him and kept talking. 

“The renovations are probably almost finished by now. You can go, I promise you confronting Hogwarts is better now that in a couple of years, when there's no one there for you. The people there, your friends, you're part of them Harry.” 

Harry felt his throat getting tighter and hung up, not waiting for other Harry to respond. He knew it would make him think enough to convince him to go. He handed the man his phone back and started walked towards his house, tears slowly dripping down his cheek. He wasn't part of anything now. If only Harry had made the right choice.

Harry could punch himself right in the face by the time he had arrived at his house. Why had he picked the phone up. Of course he knew the answer, that little flicker of hope, the wish to find happiness. 

Harry grabbed his keys to unlock the door. The keys didn't turn in the lock. Slowly Harry pushed down the door handle. In his mood Harry hadn't noticed the light burning in the living room. There was someone in. Harry reached for his wand, sliding it out of his pocked. 

The hallway was dark but noises were coming from the livingroom. It almost sounded like… like there was a child in there. 

Someone called out from the room. “Harry, is that you?” Harry recognized the voice vaguely, it sounded like a man’s.

The door opened and no one less than Draco Malfoy stood in the doorpost with a child in his arms. 

Harry lowered his wand and tried not to let his mouth fall open. What was Teddy Lupin doing in the arms of Draco Malfoy. Why was Teddy Lupin alive. And maybe even more important: What the flying fuck was Draco Malfoy doing in Harry Potter’s house?

“Harry, there you are! I’m so sorry you got all wet, I’ll get you some dry clothes.”

Harry kept staring at Malfoy. He looked older. Of course he looked older, he hadn’t seen Malfoy in over five years. 

“Harry? Are you okay? Did something happen?” Malfoy looked distressed, if not worse.

Malfoy put Teddy down and walked over to Harry, he tried to grab Harry’s hand but Harry pulled back. 

He looked at Malfoy’s hand in front of him, then at his own, gripping his wand tightly. A golden ring around his finger. Why was it there, how had it gotten there?

Without thinking twice about it Harry turned around and left the house, running back into the rain. Carefully taking his step, Harry ran back to where he had last seen the man. 

Of course he was nowhere to be seen. Harry decided to go in the narrow alley he had first seen the man in. This had to be fixed. Maybe the man really had bewitched him? He had done something, for sure.

Harry got every thought out of his mind and kept on running in the alley. He had to focus on finding the man. Where did that orange glowing coat go? Where would Harry go if he had a big red phone? Most likely left.

Harry turned left, right, right and another left, following his intuition on every turn. 

The man was nowhere to be seen, Harry hadn’t thought it was likely to find him again but he had hoped.

What was Harry going to do? He had no idea. He did have one priority, getting Malfoy out of his house and back to Teddy. Back to Teddy who was dead as far as Harry was concerned. Harry had been there, seen it himself. How Andromeda hadn’t been able to take care of the child because of her own illness. Teddy ebbing away in the children’s home...

Deciding he wouldn’t find the man Harry thought it would be best to go back to the house.

Harry ran to the house in a fast tempo, his shoes getting covered in mud with every heavy step he took. Minutes passed and something in Harry changed. He could see his house, the lights on, and a light filled Harry. At first it was warm, bubbly. With every meter Harry got closer to his house the light got stronger. Pulling him towards the house and making him want to explode at the same time. 

Harry stepped onto the porch and opened the door. His heart was racing in his chest and he had no idea why but it felt good. His hand touched the doorknob and the light exploded inside of him. For a moment everything went dark. Harry felt numb, his body relaxed, almost fell over, then a new world opened up before him.

The door flew open. Draco was in the opening. The warm glow from inside the house making his hair glow gold. Every time Harry saw him he fell in love all over again with his husband. He felt like… universes had collided.


End file.
